DaisyField→Postcards→About

About the images

Most cards passed through the U.S. mail, hence they have postmarks and written messages on them that may obscure part of the image.  Since all the cards are almost 100 years old, their colors have faded, and some cards have physical damage.  However, most cards are in good condition.  Many of the cards were made in Germany, as was common at the time.  I believe that the color images were reproductions of hand-colored black-and-white photos.

I scan the cards using an HP PhotoSmart scanner.  I use Cerious Software's ThumbsPlus to do the image processing and web layout for the image pages, and to keep my many images organized and accessible.  I have digitally retouched a few cards.  Where I've done this, it is usually simply to remove a postmark from a portion of the image depicting the sky.

Dates of the postcards

You'll see that I assign a year, e.g., 1906, to each postcard.  I arrive at this date by looking sequentially for:

• Printed date of photo
• Printed postcard copyright date
• Legible postmark date
• Legible handwritten date

The first "hit" determines the date. If none of the above dates exists, then I make a guess based on:

• Dates of cards nearby in the album
• Technology used to manufacture the card
• Clues from handwritten text on card.

I prefix guessed dates with the letter "c" (for "circa").  For example: "c1908" means a guessed date of 1908.

Copyright?

I believe that all postcard images in this site are in the public domain.  The cards are old enough so that the original copyrights probably have expired.  Furthermore, I make no claim of copyright for my scans of the images.  As far as I am concerned, you may use the image files in any way, including selling printed versions of them, publishing them on a web site, or incorporating them in a printed book or other publication.  However, you would do so at your own risk.  The risk would be that, unknown to me, someone does hold a valid copyright to some of the postcards in this collection.  (If you use the images, it would be nice if you cite this web site.)